US6762373B2 - Compact rotary attenuator - Google Patents

Compact rotary attenuator Download PDF

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Publication number
US6762373B2
US6762373B2 US10/273,920 US27392002A US6762373B2 US 6762373 B2 US6762373 B2 US 6762373B2 US 27392002 A US27392002 A US 27392002A US 6762373 B2 US6762373 B2 US 6762373B2
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US
United States
Prior art keywords
input
housing
output
terminal board
pair
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Expired - Fee Related, expires
Application number
US10/273,920
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English (en)
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US20030075421A1 (en
Inventor
Yasuhiro Matsuo
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HIROSA ELECTRIC Co Ltd
Hirose Electric Co Ltd
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Hirose Electric Co Ltd
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Assigned to HIROSA ELECTRIC CO., LTD. reassignment HIROSA ELECTRIC CO., LTD. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: MATSUO, YASUHIRO
Publication of US20030075421A1 publication Critical patent/US20030075421A1/en
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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01H—ELECTRIC SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE DEVICES
    • H01H19/00—Switches operated by an operating part which is rotatable about a longitudinal axis thereof and which is acted upon directly by a solid body external to the switch, e.g. by a hand
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01P—WAVEGUIDES; RESONATORS, LINES, OR OTHER DEVICES OF THE WAVEGUIDE TYPE
    • H01P1/00—Auxiliary devices
    • H01P1/22—Attenuating devices
    • H01P1/225—Coaxial attenuators

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a rotary attenuator device.
  • Each rotary attenuator device 50 has a disk-shaped terminal board 52 which can rotate in a housing 51 .
  • the disk-shaped terminal board is driven by stepwise rotational movement for a specified angle through operating a dial (not illustrated) mounted at a driving shaft 53 which protrudes outside of the housing 51 .
  • Plural pairs of input and output terminals are locally arranged on one side of the terminal board 52 .
  • an input coaxial connector 54 and an output coaxial connector 55 are provided on a side of the housing 52 , which is opposite to the side where the driving shaft 53 is provided.
  • contact shoes 56 and 57 respectively contact with input terminal 58 and output terminals 59 of a pair in the housing, and come to respectively contact with input terminals 58 ′ and output terminals 59 ′ of another pair once the terminal board rotates stepwise in one direction or another direction.
  • the contact shoes 56 and 57 are respectively connected to the central conductor of the connectors 54 and 55 .
  • the contact shoes 56 and 57 of the input and output coaxial connectors 54 and 55 are made similar each other.
  • the contact shoe 56 is made by bending a metal sheet band, such that the sheet surface of the bent part is parallel to the surface of the non-bent part. Therefore, it looks like a U-shape skid for the shaft 56 A, which is connected to the central conductor.
  • the contact shoe 54 extends along circumferential direction on the terminal board, e.g. a direction towards its adjacent input terminal 58 ′.
  • the contact shoe 54 elastically contacts with the input terminal by its elasticity, and comes to contact with the adjacent input terminal with its rounded end, e.g. the rounded bottom part of the U-shape.
  • Such contact shoe is also provided to the output coaxial connector.
  • the pair of input and output terminals 58 and 59 respectively contact with the contact shoes 56 and 57 at one side of the terminal board, e.g. on the same side of the terminal board 52 , the pair of the input and output terminals 58 and 59 cannot be provided too close to each other. Therefore, the input and output coaxial connectors 54 and 55 need to be arranged in more distant positions. Accordingly, the distance between the input terminal and the output terminal needs to be set relatively large. If plural pairs of both terminals are arranged along the circumference on the terminal board 52 , the terminal board 52 becomes large. Consequently, if a plurality of the rotary attenuator devices 50 are arranged as illustrated in FIG. 5, the total width L becomes extremely large. That is, it is not avoidable that the electronic device, in which this rotary attenuator device is used, becomes even larger.
  • the possible elastic displacement of the conventional contact shoe of FIG. 7 is small, the allowable amount for errors in the displacement is small. In other words, it is hard to stabilize the contact. Furthermore, because of its shape, the contact shoe smoothly contacts with the terminal when the terminal board rotates in one rotational direction, but when the terminal board rotates in the opposite direction, the contact shoe is often caught by the terminal and also, the contact tends to be unstable.
  • a compact rotary attenuator which comprises the terminal board, on which plural pairs of input and output terminals are provided along its circumference and an electronic part including resistance are provided between the input and output terminals of each pair; the driving shaft which is joined to the center of the terminal board in the housing to be vertical to the surface of the terminal board and held so as to rotate; input and output contact shoes which elastically contact with input and output terminals of each pair by its freely sliding movement, and input and output coaxial connectors being held by the housing and having the central conductor extending to the inside of the housing.
  • the first aspect of the invention is featured by that the input contact shoe and the output contact shoe are provided on different sides of the terminal board to contact with corresponding input terminal and output terminal.
  • the input terminal and the output terminal are provided on the opposite side of the terminal board to the other, both can be arranged in adjacent position along the circumference of the terminal board, no matter with the size of its head portion. Therefore, the distance along the circumferential direction can be short when the plural pairs of the input terminal and the output terminal are arranged. Accordingly, the distance in a radial direction for the arrangement on the circuit board can be small. As a result, the terminal board can be small in its size, and also the attenuator device can be small in its size.
  • the input contact shoe and the output contact shoe are provided at one end of a respective elastic arm, which is formed like a cantilever, extends in the radial direction of the terminal board, and contacts with the central conductor of the coaxial connector and held at the other end.
  • the housing has a pair of flat outer surfaces, which are parallel and face each other. If each axis of the driving shaft, the input coaxial connector and the output coaxial connector is supposed to be in a surface parallel to the pair of outer surfaces, a plurality of the attenuators can be arranged by contacting the outer surfaces together, so that total width can be made shorter.
  • the second aspect of the invention is featured by that the housing has the pair of flat outer surfaces, which are parallel and face each other. And all the axes of the driving shaft, the input coaxial connector and the output coaxial connector are in one surface parallel to the pair of the outer surfaces. Since all the axes of the driving shaft, the input coaxial connector and the output coaxial connector are in one surface parallel to the pair of the outer surfaces, the attenuator can be made even smaller than the one in the first invention. Therefore, the total width in a direction of arranging the attenuators become extremely small when plural attenuators are arranged. Therefore, the device, in which the attenuator is used, can be also designed to be smaller.
  • the input contact shoe and the output contact shoe are provided on one end of respective elastic arm, which is formed like a cantilever and extends in a radial direction of the terminal board.
  • the elastic arm is connected with the central conductor of the coaxial connector and held thereby.
  • FIG. 1 is a partially cutout, side view of a rotary attenuator according to an embodiment of the present invention, including input and output coaxial connectors and a driving shaft.
  • FIGS. 2 (A) and (B) are front and back views of a terminal board for the attenuator viewed in a direction of arrows A and B, respectively.
  • FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a contact shoe of the attenuator.
  • FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the attenuators that are arranged side by side.
  • FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the conventional rotary attenuators that are arranged side by side.
  • FIG. 6 is a side view of the terminal board and the contact shoe for the conventional attenuator.
  • FIG. 7 is a partially cross-section perspective view of the terminal and the contact shoe for the conventional attenuator.
  • the rotary attenuator has a disk-type terminal board 3 in a hollow chamber 2 of a housing 1 which is a block-shaped metal. It is not illustrated in the figure, but the housing 1 itself can be disassembled into several parts, so that the attenuator device can be assembled by first placing the terminal board 3 in the hollow chamber 2 , as illustrated in FIG. 1, and then covering the terminal board.
  • the housing 1 has outer surfaces 4 , 5 , and 6 , which are respectively vertical to axes 4 A, 5 A, and 6 A.
  • the axes 4 A, 5 A, and 6 A are vertical or parallel each other in a paper surface of FIG. 1 .
  • the housing 1 has a pair of flat outer surfaces 7 , 8 , which are parallel to the paper surface of FIG. 1 (In FIG. 1, one of the flat outer surfaces 7 is illustrated, and the other outer surface 8 is located on the backside of the paper of the figure). Accordingly, the housing 1 has substantially rectangular parallelepiped block shape.
  • the outer surface does not have to be flat, and can be optionally any shape.
  • Coaxial connectors 9 and 10 are respectively attached to the outer surfaces 4 and 5 of the housing 1 .
  • coaxial connectors 9 and 10 one is used as input coaxial connector, and the other is used as the output coaxial connector.
  • the coaxial connectors 9 and 10 respectively have screw portions 9 A and 10 A, respectively, to connect with the coaxial cable outside the housing.
  • the coaxial connectors 9 , 10 have central conductors 9 B, 10 B protruding into the housing.
  • the central conductors 9 B, 10 B hold the contact shoes 11 , 12 .
  • the contact shoes are described below in detail.
  • the driving shaft 13 extends outward from the outer surface 6 of the housing 1 , and the dial (not illustrated) can be attached outside the housing to rotationally drive the driving shaft 13 around the axis 6 A.
  • the driving shaft 13 also protrudes into the housing 1 , and supports the terminal board 3 at its center position. The mutual positioning and attachment of the terminal board 3 and the driving shaft 13 are done by the spacer 14 , the nut 15 , and so on.
  • the driving shaft 13 and the housing 1 are electrically connected by a spring washer 16 and a sliding member 17 .
  • the terminal board 3 is disk-shaped, and has a D-shaped shaft hole 3 A at its center, in which the driving shaft 13 goes through.
  • the driving shaft 13 is stopped in the circumferential direction by the straight inner area 3 A 1 of the D-shaped shaft hole.
  • a plurality of holes 18 is provided along the circumference of the shaft hole 3 A, and used for putting wiring through from both sides of the terminal board if required.
  • a plurality of pairs of terminal holes 19 A and 19 B are provided along the outer circumference of the terminal board 3 .
  • the terminal 20 A is provided at one terminal hole 19 A, extruding outward from one side of the terminal board, while the terminal 20 B is provided at the other terminal hole 19 B, extruding outward from the other side of the terminal board.
  • Conductive surface areas 22 , 23 are printed in areas on the terminal board, where the terminals 20 A, 20 B are to be attached.
  • the conductive surface area 23 on a surface where the terminal 20 B is attached has an extension part 24 , which extends inward in a radial direction.
  • Electronic part 29 required for an attenuator, such as resistance, is arranged and connects between the extension part 24 on the side of the terminal 20 B and the extension part 24 on the side of the terminal 20 A, and between the extension part 24 and the central conductive surface area 25 .
  • Electrical properties, such as resistance, of the electronic parts arranged to each pair of terminals are different among the electronic devices, and the properties of the input/output terminals gradually change by stepwise rotation of the driving shaft 13 for every contact of the contact shoes with the pair of terminals.
  • the contact shoes 11 , 12 held by the central conductors 9 B, 10 B of the coaxial connectors 9 , 10 are attached to one end of the elastic arm 27 , 28 , which extends in a radial direction of the terminal board, being angled from the surface of the terminal board.
  • the other ends of the elastic arms 27 , 28 are connected and retained to the central conductors 9 B, 10 B.
  • the elastic arm 27 is positioned inward in the radial direction, and bent at its middle position such that one end is vertical to the other end (here, the elastic arm can be located outward in the radial direction).
  • the elastic arm 28 is positioned outward in the radial direction, and slightly bent, but extends in the radial direction of the terminal board 3 .
  • the contact shoes 11 , 12 attached to one end of the elastic arms 27 , 28 are the same each other. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the contact shoe 11 contacts with the terminal 20 A, and is shaped like a wave along the circumferential direction with its ends up in the circumferential direction. Because of this shape, the contact shoe can easily move onto the adjacent terminal at the time of moving towards the adjacent terminal. Accordingly, the contact shoe 11 surely contact with terminal even when the terminal to contact is changed by the stepwise rotational movement of the terminal board 3 , and stop at the normal contact position so as to maintain its contacting condition.
  • the width of the contact length in the circumferential direction is larger than the diameter of the head part of the terminal, but is designed not to contact with the adjacent terminal when the lower surface of the dent 11 B contacts with one terminal at normal position.
  • the amount of attenuation can be selected by changing the resistance between the input/output terminals or the like through stepwise rotation of the driving shaft 13 under the condition where the input and output coaxial connectors 9 , 10 are connected to coaxial cables.
  • the distance between those terminals is smaller than before, so that the radius of the terminal board can be smaller. That is, the width of the attenuator device can be smaller. Also, the width of the contact shoe in circumferential direction can be smaller by contacting the contact shoe with the terminal in the radial direction of the terminal board, so that device can be smaller even on this point. Furthermore, since the axes of the coaxial connectors and the driving shaft are supposed to be all located in one surface (hypothetical surface), the size in the above-described width direction can be smaller also in this point.
  • the attenuator device of the present invention can be used alone, but it can be used combining several of them. In this case, the features of the present invention can be fully used.
  • the total width L is extremely small due to the narrow width of each attenuator, so that the electronic device, in which those attenuators are used, can be made small in the direction of arranging the attenuators.
  • the distance between the input terminal and the output terminal of the pair can be shorter.
  • the contact shoe is designed to contact by extending in the radial direction of the terminal board, there is no space required for holding the contact shoe in the circumferential direction.
  • the distance between the pairs of the input terminal and the output terminal can be short when plural pairs of terminals are arranged on the terminal board, as well as the distance between the input terminal and the output terminal of the pair is maintained small.
  • the size in the radial direction of the terminal board can be extremely small; therefore, the attenuator device can be made small.
  • the size of the device can be even smaller.
  • plural attenuators are arranged, a large effect can be expected if they are arranged by contacting each other by their outer surfaces.

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  • Coupling Device And Connection With Printed Circuit (AREA)
  • Adjustable Resistors (AREA)
US10/273,920 2001-10-22 2002-10-21 Compact rotary attenuator Expired - Fee Related US6762373B2 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
JP2001-323773 2001-10-22
JP2001323773A JP3696540B2 (ja) 2001-10-22 2001-10-22 ロータリアッテネータ装置

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
US20030075421A1 US20030075421A1 (en) 2003-04-24
US6762373B2 true US6762373B2 (en) 2004-07-13

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Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US10/273,920 Expired - Fee Related US6762373B2 (en) 2001-10-22 2002-10-21 Compact rotary attenuator

Country Status (6)

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US (1) US6762373B2 (ko)
EP (1) EP1304706B1 (ko)
JP (1) JP3696540B2 (ko)
KR (1) KR100573552B1 (ko)
CN (1) CN1244114C (ko)
DE (1) DE60222359T2 (ko)

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP2005243687A (ja) * 2004-02-24 2005-09-08 Alps Electric Co Ltd 回転型可変抵抗器

Citations (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2481649A (en) * 1945-04-25 1949-09-13 Daven Company Attenuator assembly
US2484126A (en) * 1948-05-04 1949-10-11 Daven Company Attenuator assembly
US2601372A (en) * 1948-08-11 1952-06-24 Gabriel Co Rotary coaxial switch
US3303296A (en) * 1964-12-08 1967-02-07 Mc Graw Edison Co Attenuator with improved housing structure
US3652812A (en) * 1970-09-28 1972-03-28 Westinghouse Electric Corp Tap changer switch with radial pressurized movable contact structure
US3940584A (en) * 1974-06-19 1976-02-24 Arvin Industries, Inc. Coaxial switch for high frequency signals
US4146853A (en) * 1976-01-28 1979-03-27 Alps Electric Co., Ltd. Variable attenuator
JP2000294410A (ja) 1999-04-07 2000-10-20 Nippon Antenna Co Ltd ロータリー式アッテネータ
US6353195B1 (en) * 1999-11-04 2002-03-05 Spencer G. Stanfield Mechanism for interrupting current flow through two electrical cables

Patent Citations (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2481649A (en) * 1945-04-25 1949-09-13 Daven Company Attenuator assembly
US2484126A (en) * 1948-05-04 1949-10-11 Daven Company Attenuator assembly
US2601372A (en) * 1948-08-11 1952-06-24 Gabriel Co Rotary coaxial switch
US3303296A (en) * 1964-12-08 1967-02-07 Mc Graw Edison Co Attenuator with improved housing structure
US3652812A (en) * 1970-09-28 1972-03-28 Westinghouse Electric Corp Tap changer switch with radial pressurized movable contact structure
US3940584A (en) * 1974-06-19 1976-02-24 Arvin Industries, Inc. Coaxial switch for high frequency signals
US4146853A (en) * 1976-01-28 1979-03-27 Alps Electric Co., Ltd. Variable attenuator
JP2000294410A (ja) 1999-04-07 2000-10-20 Nippon Antenna Co Ltd ロータリー式アッテネータ
US6353195B1 (en) * 1999-11-04 2002-03-05 Spencer G. Stanfield Mechanism for interrupting current flow through two electrical cables

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
US20030075421A1 (en) 2003-04-24
KR20030033940A (ko) 2003-05-01
JP3696540B2 (ja) 2005-09-21
EP1304706A2 (en) 2003-04-23
DE60222359T2 (de) 2008-06-12
KR100573552B1 (ko) 2006-04-25
JP2003133106A (ja) 2003-05-09
EP1304706A3 (en) 2005-06-29
DE60222359D1 (de) 2007-10-25
CN1414574A (zh) 2003-04-30
CN1244114C (zh) 2006-03-01
EP1304706B1 (en) 2007-09-12

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Effective date: 20120713